Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

08/09/2013

From the witness stand, former Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning mimicked the way the gunman opened fire, holding a pistol with both hands and firing rapidly at Station 13, a formation of 45 folding chairs in four rows at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Manning, who was in the middle of the front row, was hit six times.

“I figured that the shooter would finish me off if he thought I was still alive,” said Manning, who got choked up as he recalled seeing Army Reserve Capt. John Gaffaney, lying unconscious.

Gaffaney, a psychiatric nurse who volunteered to rejoin the service after 9/11, was one of 13 people killed in the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military base.

Once the shooting began, those inside the building initially were stunned, uncertain of what was going on. Sgt. 1st Class Paul Martin was among those looking for cover.

“If he can't see me, he can't shoot me again,” Martin said he told himself.

What happened next was as fresh in mind Thursday as it was nearly four years ago when witnesses said they saw an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan gun down 13 soldiers in the SRP, also called Building 42003.

A tough NCO who took charge of triaging the patients that day, barking orders at her overwhelmed staff, the process required her to coolly place a blue absorbent pad on the heads of the dead and mark “D” on it along with the time of death.

Those memories have stuck with her as well as others who've never shaken visions of the dead and mortally wounded, one of them a soldier who never got out of his fold-out chair.

They told the court in frequently emotional testimony of wide-open eyes that didn't blink, labored breathing that comes with the final moments of life, and the blood — especially at Station 13, a waiting area where dozens of soldiers sat, waiting in a long line of chairs.

“It was covered in blood,” said retired Sgt. Monique Archuletta, who was in the office with Guerra as the attack began Nov. 5, 2009. “It was a huge puddle of blood.”

The testimony, the most emotional yet in a rare military capital murder that is in its third day, put Hasan at the scene of the shooting, with Guerra providing the best eyewitness account yet of how he fired on soldiers and civilians in the facility.

FORT HOOD — Pfcs. Alan Carroll, Michael Pearson and Aaron Nemelka came to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center's Station 13 on the morning of Nov. 5, 2009, but were told to come back later.

They went to chow and returned about 12:30 p.m., talking about their week and what their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan — their first — was going to be like.

Little did they know that the war was about to come to them.

“We were continuing to talk about the weekend and heard shouts of Allahu Akbar!'” Carroll said, adding that their conversation continued.

“I thought it was a pop gun at first. We didn't know exactly what was going on.”

A few moments elapsed before things became clear. The sting of a bullet that hit his left shoulder and the sight of blood brought into focus the battle they had suddenly been thrust into, and it quickly became obvious that nothing less than their survival was at stake.

Taking the stand for 21 minutes, Carroll, now a sergeant, recounted a survivor's tale Thursday morning in the capital murder trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding another 31 in a shooting spree that is the worst ever on a U.S. military installation.

His testimony came after a contentious 24 hours in which defense attorneys and the judge in this case, Col. Tara Osborn, wrestled over a request to change the way they advise Hasan, who is acting as his own attorney.

08/07/2013

FORT HOOD — One of the biggest capital murder trials in U.S. military history came to an abrupt halt on its second day as Maj. Nidal Hasan's standby counsel team asked that its role in the proceeding be modified.

Lawyers on the team said Hasan is intentionally seeking the death penalty in his court-martial.

The military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, cleared the court Wednesday morning so she could conduct a closed hearing on the matter. The trial in the 2009 shooting that left 13 people dead and 31 wounded is scheduled to resume Thursday morning.

It remains to be seen how the motion filed by Lt. Col Kris Poppe and two other lawyers on Hasan's standby counsel will impact the high-profile trial. Poppe, Hasan's former lead defense attorney, has long expressed misgivings about the role of his team since Hasan sought to represent himself earlier this year.

In a discussion outside the jury's presence, Poppe told the judge it became clear when testimony began Tuesday that Hasan was attempting to remove obstacles to the death penalty — something the standby defense team found “repugnant.”

He said Hasan, who has seldom raised objections or questioned witnesses or prospective jury members, has been “engaging to working toward the death penalty.”

That statement drew a defiant reaction from Hasan, who is serving as his own attorney, with the standby counsel team present.

08/06/2013

FORT HOOD — A long-awaited trial for the Army psychiatrist accused of being the gunman in a rampage here nearly four years ago began Tuesday morning, with prosecutors saying that Maj. Nidal Hasan methodically gunned down 12 soldiers and a civilian for one purpose — to wage holy war.

Hasan, in a brief opening statement, admitted he was the gunman. He also told the 13-member jury of officers, two of them women, that he was “on the wrong side” of the war — and switched sides.

“Panel members, good morning. On Nov. 5, 2009, 13 U.S. soldiers were killed and many more injured. The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter,” he said, adding that the dead bodies found that day show war is a terrible thing.

“There's death and destruction and devastation for both sides. That is for both friend and foe, but the evidence presented in this trial will only show one side. The evidence will also will show I was on the wrong side. The evidence will also show that I switched sides.”

He added a moment later: “We, the mujahedeen, are imperfect Muslims trying to establish a perfect religion in the land of the supreme God. I apologize for any mistakes that I made in this endeavor. Thank you. That is it, ma'am.”

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the worst shooting of its kind on a U.S. military base.

The second time came nearly one year later, when the two men met again at an evidentiary hearing about the mass shooting at Fort Hood, the worst ever on any U.S. military post. After taking the stand, Lunsford's one good eye caught Hasan glaring at him.

When opening statements in Hasan's murder trial begin Tuesday, nearly four years after the massacre, Lunsford, as the likely leadoff witness for the military, expects to meet the eyes of his shooter for the third time.

FORT HOOD — A Fort Hood judge Monday asked jurors if they had seen media reports since being selected to weigh the fate of an Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a rampage here.

Some of the jurors had seen snippets of news accounts but little more, while one juror recalled a comment from his daughter.

“'Well,'” he recalled her saying, “'I guess you'll be going back soon.'”

The hearing was brief, running just under an hour. Col. Tara Osborn, the judge, focused on the jurors' media exposure as well as whether anything had come up since their selection that would preclude them from serving on the panel.

All 13 jurors said no. The Army is not identifying the jurors to prevent anyone from retaliating against them.

There are nine colonels on the panel, three lieutenant colonels and one major. Two are women, one of them African American.

A colonel, she is the jury president.

It is one of numerous security measures that have been put in place at Fort Hood, where Hasan stands charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. He faces another 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the worst shooting of its kind at an American military installation.

08/02/2013

FORT HOOD — Prosecutors of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan for the first time on Friday voiced what victims of the 2009 rampage at Fort Hood have long said: that the mass shooting was an Islamic terrorist attack.

Col. Steve Henricks, one of three prosecutors, likened Hasan to a suicide bomber, saying Hasan researched going on jihad before the attack that left 13 dead and 32 wounded.

It was the first time the Army has made that allegation. Prosecutors said they would show that Hasan tried to target soldiers and not civilians, and that he intended to martyr himself at the end of the massacre.

“We believe that just like a suicide bomber, Maj. Hasan had no intention of leaving 5/11 alive,” Henricks said without elaborating.

The Nov. 5, 2009 shooting is often called “5/11” in the Killeen area.

Prosecutors hope to use evidence in the trial, which starts Tuesday, to prove Hasan is guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The idea is to show that he became increasingly radicalized over time. Hasan, who faces the death penalty and is acting as his own attorney, did not object.

An American born to Palestinian immigrants, Hasan has told the court he was the gunman that day, and that he launched the attack in hopes of preventing U.S. soldiers from killing Taliban insurgents, their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and innocent Afghan women and children.

Witnesses at a 2010 evidentiary hearing put Hasan at the scene, with some saying he cried, “God is great!” in Arabic. Critics have said those words, along with evidence showing he'd become religiously radicalized, prove he is a terrorist, but Pentagon leaders have never characterized the attack as such. In one congressional hearing, a government official labeled it an incident of workplace violence.

The trial judge, Col. Tara Osborn, expressed concern about weighing evidence dealing with motive, including the possibility that Hasan targeted soldiers, not civilians. That issue is critical because she has to decide when evidence can be fairly introduced.